


Jade

by RenGoneMad



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action & Romance, Akatsuki Haruno Sakura, Angst, Day 3, F/M, Haruno Sakura is from Another Village, Heavy Angst with Potential for A Happy Ending, POV Nara Shikamaru, ShikaSaku Week 2020, Strangers to Lovers to Enemies to Lovers?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:54:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26800990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenGoneMad/pseuds/RenGoneMad
Summary: The first time Shikamaru saw her, he likened her eyes to emeralds: beautiful, precious, memorable—the sort of thing that seemed untouchable until it was a tangible weight in your hands.One time, her eyes changed.It was a momentary flash, a trick of the dawning sun painting orange across her features. He, of all people, knew how shadows could play in the corners of the mind.When she turned to him, her soft smile erased the sharp glint that had cut into his skin.But now, Shikamaru knew:Her shadows weren’t imaginary.Her shadows weren’t figments.Her shadows were living, breathing demons, sinking their teeth into flesh andtearing——and Shikamaru was touchable.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Nara Shikamaru
Comments: 13
Kudos: 74





	Jade

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Akatsuki!Sakura](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/695611) by nki-stories. 



> This is inspired by some just beautiful, fantastic artwork by nki-stories, who was kind enough to allow me to write and post this little piece based on it. She is a brilliant artist and writer and you should absolutely check out her works and give her all the likes and reblogs~

The first time Shikamaru saw her, he likened her eyes to emeralds: beautiful, precious, memorable—the sort of thing that seemed untouchable until it was a tangible weight in your hands. 

Then, she _was_ in his hands, and she was alive in a way no gemstone could be. Her skin spread warmth to his, her smile inviting him back every time. Her voice settled sweet on his tongue and dripped down to his bones. They soothed aches he had no idea existed before she found him, exposing every crack in his structure even as she sealed them with molten gold. 

One time, her eyes changed. 

It was a momentary flash, a trick of the dawning sun painting orange across her features. Shikamaru’s mind had played far worse tricks on him than this, he assured himself. He, of all people, knew how shadows could play in the corners of the mind. 

When she turned to him, her soft smile erased the sharp glint that had cut into his skin. 

But now, Shikamaru knew: 

Her shadows weren’t imaginary. 

Her shadows weren’t figments. 

Her shadows were living, breathing demons, sinking their teeth into flesh and _tearing_ — 

—and Shikamaru was touchable. 

Her fingers could touch every part of him, and he had no defense. 

Even as they slid across his jaw, blunt nails digging into his throat, her thumb pressing into his carotid—even then, he couldn’t look away. 

Her eyes weren’t emeralds. 

They were nephrite jade: beautiful, precious, memorable—and formed into a weapon that could crush skulls with a single swing. 

She wasn’t brittle. She wouldn’t break. She could be carved and shaped and still she would survive, no fractures in her surface. 

If there were fractures within, Shikamaru couldn’t see them now. 

Her eyes gleamed opaque. He couldn’t see through to whatever had tried to carve her, made her into a club to take lives.

Except, perhaps he could, because there was a man beside her now; it was a man Shikamaru had known and hated long before he saw Sakura’s jade eyes.

Her fingernails dug crimson crescents into Shikamaru’s throat. 

From the corner of his eye, white-blonde cascaded to the ground as Ino dropped to the forest floor. 

Then Shikamaru realized, with the sort of epiphany that had always resulted in a careful victory—that he could still breathe. Her palm didn’t compress his larynx. The lightheadedness he felt was oxygen becoming trapped in his carotid, blocking it from flowing to his brain, keeping him from thinking beyond black robes and bloody clouds and the scratched out Iwagakure symbol on the hitai-ate he had never seen her wear before. 

His lips parted, ready to gasp her name—the one he had called out every night, the one that defined her existence to him before this night, whether it was her true one or not—but she squeezed once, painfully, and then the pressure released.

No, not entirely; he could breathe, but her palm hadn’t left, and blood was still pooling in his throat. 

He didn’t try to speak again. 

She did. 

“The game isn’t so interesting when you’re just a pawn, is it, jōnin-san?” Sakura asked quietly, her lips curving into a bitter smile. He wondered why she kept the taste of his name from her tongue, but he couldn’t think, couldn’t see the way the pieces aligned across the board. 

Dark spots were beginning to seep into the edges of Shikamaru’s vision, like punctured holes leaking oil he couldn’t blink away. His broken wrist lay limply at his side, his other caught in her left hand, being squeezed so harshly his bones scraped together and there was no chance of numb fingers forming seals.

“Sakura,” the Uchiha said, his tone sharp. Callous red eyes darted over to Shikamaru, then disinterestedly away. “Kill him quickly if you’re going to, or knock him out, before their backup comes. We don’t need to waste time fighting Konoha jōnin.” 

Shikamaru didn’t wonder how Sasuke knew. The tomoe of his sharingan swirled at a nauseating pace around his pupil; Choji lay collapsed in the dirt, eyes blank and lifeless. His broad chest rose and fell with steady breaths. 

There was no telling, limp and pale and turned away as she was, if the strike to Ino’s temple had done more than knock her out. 

Nails bit into his skin and Shikamaru returned his gaze to the cold jade before him. 

No—not cold. 

Burning. Dipped in liquid fire.

Her grip loosened just enough for blood to rush back to Shikamaru’s brain. He nearly fell, knees collapsing as the world spun and he struggled to not expel the potato chips sitting heavy in his stomach. 

The half-empty bag lay beside Choji, contents spilling onto the dirt, soiled by debris and animal excrement. 

Sakura’s stare bore into Shikamaru’s mind like ancient, nephrite jade clubs had once dug into brains. 

“Sorry, Sasuke-kun, I didn’t mean to hold you up. You’re right, there’s no reward to fighting them.” 

No reward. Sakura had always asked for a reward. She had never won a game against Shikamaru, but he remembered her grin and triumphant crow when she managed to stall him for thirty-two minutes before conceding her King. She had made him walk with her for two hours, until they found a cave she’d heard about and wanted to explore. There hadn’t been much there, but that view wasn’t what Shikamaru had cared about in the first place.

Sakura bent her elbow as she stepped to the side, her slender shoulders just concealing the place her hand rested on his throat. 

Rested—not gripped. 

_‘Pawns. Jōnin-san. Hold you up. Reward.’_

Shikamaru’s heart fluttered like a hummingbird, struggling to restore proper, intelligent thought.

She blinked once, pink lashes closing like curtains over jade, and Shikamaru made a decision based on nights that should have never been.

Shikamaru went limp in her grip, half a heartbeat before she snapped his neck. 

Pain wrenched through him, radiating up and down his spine, and from the wrist she had already cleanly snapped—

_Cleanly_ ; the revelation came like the whispers she had once offered him in the nights: tender and honest and only for him. 

Shikamaru dropped to the ground, forcing his eyes closed even though it could give him away; blinking would be worse. His temple hit a rock as he crumpled, but it was flat and he knew from the mental clarity that it wasn’t a concussion, even if it would bleed like a bitch. 

That could give him away, too. 

Luckily, Sasuke was as cold a bastard as he had ever been; the corpse of an old classmate held no interest for him. “Let’s go.”

Footsteps crunched on the forest floor, snapping twigs and the dry leaves of an early autumn. Sweat cooled on Shikamaru’s brow even as blood gushed warm from his hairline. 

Shikamaru heard Sakura’s footsteps turn, felt the vibration in the earth beneath his cheek as she jumped to a high tree branch, following her king.

_‘Pawns. Jōnin-san. Hold you up. Reward.’_

There were nine pawns on each side of a game of shogi: nine days. 

Sasuke wasn’t aware that Sakura knew his name—didn’t know about the nights and days they had spent in each other’s arms.

She had stalled Shikamaru once before. She could hold Sasuke up, as well. 

Her reward had been a location, a secluded spot that she’d had the flimsiest excuse to see, but spent an hour exploring every part of it, pointing out features that had unknowingly seeped into Shikamaru’s brain the way Sakura had into his heart.

For that reward, she had sacrificed her king.

Oxygen deprivation and adrenaline and blood loss threatened to take Shikamaru’s consciousness, but he struggled to not heave in great gasps of air, not to stay the bleeding, not to move off of his screaming, broken wrist, until his ears were filled with nothing but the sound of his own, weak pulse.

He needed to move, needed to check on Ino and Choji, needed to get this information back to Konoha, needed to make sure they were prepared—

His eyelids fluttered open, but he couldn’t see. 

He wasn’t dying, but Sakura had known what she was doing—he hadn’t even noticed when she blocked two chakra points leading to his brain. 

She hadn’t wanted to be followed. 

The last thing Shikamaru saw before losing consciousness was a phantom memory of translucent tears in brilliant, jade eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I do also have a couple more ShikaSaku Week snippets on my tumblr: https://rengonemad.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> This is my first AO3 posted ShikaSaku work, and I would appreciate any feedback and criticism. But more importantly, if you enjoyed nki-stories' artwork, please go visit her and let her know!


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